Friday, 13 February 2015

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 – 1940

You may have spotted that I’ve silently started a new series. All based around one wonderful table of statistics. Another chance for virtually word-free posts. No point wasting words when I don’t need to.

We’ve leap-frogged over the Prohibition years and are in the second half of the 1930’s. Rather than faff around, let’s dive straight into the number pool. First with absolute numbers:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940
(lbs)

YEAR

PRODUCTION
(BARRELS)

MALT

C0RN
AND CORN PRODUCTS

RICE

WHEAT

BARLEY

SUGAR
AND SYRUPS

1934

37,678,313

1,433,359,057

256,875,821

102,962,470

—

—

142,445,469

1935

45,228,605

1,725,736,002

340,841,047

139,728,970

—

—

155,374,560

1936

51,812,062

1,952,210,101

450,230,018

116,310,725

—

—

167,354,485

1937

58,748,087

2,176,928,721

423,066,228

230,745,621

—

—

188,028,513

1938

56,340,163

2,059,842,865

375,029,816

260,224,294

—

—

175,811,690

1939

53,870,563

1,938,177,252

415,689,330

198,317,295

2,839,922

9,000

150,765,190

1940

54,891,737

1,958,419,675

441,101,545

188,943,875

3,535,908

3,987

144,877,697

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Interesting that beer production peaked in 1937, then fell back. I wonder why that might have been?

But those numbers are easier to interpret when changed to percentages:

Materials
used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940 (%)

YEAR

MALT

C0RN
AND CORN PRODUCTS

RICE

WHEAT

BARLEY

SUGAR
AND SYRUPS

1934

74.05%

13.27%

5.32%

7.36%

1935

73.07%

14.43%

5.92%

6.58%

1936

72.68%

16.76%

4.33%

6.23%

1937

72.11%

14.01%

7.64%

6.23%

1938

71.75%

13.06%

9.06%

6.12%

1939

71.63%

15.36%

7.33%

0.10%

0.00%

5.57%

1940

71.56%

16.12%

6.90%

0.13%

0.00%

5.29%

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

That’s much clearer, isn’t it? The malt percentage is falling at the expense of maize and rice. Intriguing that the sugar percentage was falling, too.

This next table demonstrates that gravities were falling, too:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940
(lbs per barrel)

YEAR

MALT
LBS./ BBL.

C0RN
AND CORN PRODUCTS LBS./ BBL.

RICE
LBS./ BBL.

WHEAT
LBS./ BBL.

BARLEY
LBS./ BBL.

SUGAR
AND SYRUPS LBS./ BBL.

TOTAL

1934

38.1

6.8

2.7

—

—

3.8

51.4

1935

38.2

7.5

3.1

—

—

3.4

52.2

1936

37.7

8.7

2.2

—

—

3.2

51.8

1937

37.1

7.2

3.9

—

—

3.2

51.4

1938

36.6

6.7

4.6

—

—

3.2

51.1

1939

36

7.7

3.7

0.05

0.000167067

2.8

50.3

1940

35.7

8

3.4

0.06

7.26339E-05

2.6

49.8

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Why? Because the amount of materials used per barrel was falling. Based on a yield of 89 brewers pound to an imperial quarter, this is my estimate of the average OG in the US:

YEAR

estimated average
OG

1934

1052.79

1935

1053.61

1936

1053.20

1937

1052.79

1938

1052.48

1939

1051.61

1940

1051.10

Now compare and contrast time. Or an excuse for loads more tables. First absolute numbers:

Materials
used in brewing in the UK 1934 - 1940 (lbs)

year

malt

unmalted corn

rice, maize, etc

sugar

total malt & adjuncts

bulk barrels

1934

895,504,288

1,323,392

61,360,880

172,841,536

1,131,030,096

20,378,879

1935

945,778,624

1,227,072

65,838,192

182,775,712

1,195,619,600

21,598,179

1936

968,388,064

1,202,208

66,386,208

191,006,816

1,226,983,296

22,207,859

1937

1,015,490,000

1,198,512

72,652,048

205,619,232

1,294,959,792

23,608,658

1938

1,050,435,456

1,589,728

77,065,632

212,214,576

1,341,305,392

24,339,360

1939

1,107,097,936

1,109,920

82,294,352

222,485,536

1,412,987,744

25,691,217

1940

1,104,077,856

886,144

40,721,856

171,670,912

1,317,356,768

24,925,704

Source:

1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

Now the more interpretable percentages:

Materials
used in brewing in the UK 1934 - 1940 (%)

YEAR

malt

unmalted corn

rice, maize, etc

sugar

lbs
per Imp. barrel

lbs
per US barrel

1934

79.18%

0.12%

5.43%

15.28%

55.5

39.8

1935

79.10%

0.10%

5.51%

15.29%

55.4

39.7

1936

78.92%

0.10%

5.41%

15.57%

55.2

39.6

1937

78.42%

0.09%

5.61%

15.88%

54.9

39.3

1938

78.31%

0.12%

5.75%

15.82%

55.1

39.5

1939

78.35%

0.08%

5.82%

15.75%

55.0

39.4

1940

83.81%

0.07%

3.09%

13.03%

52.9

37.9

Source:

1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

You can see here the impact of WW II. That’s why the percentage of malt in the grist increases and that of maize and rice declines. The latter two both needed to be imported. The percentage of sugar in the grist was much higher in the UK, 15% compared to 6% in the USA.

Now for hops. First the US figures:

Hop usage in the USA 1934 - 1940

YEAR

HOPS

LBS./
BBL.

1934

26,235,235

0.70

1935

31,772,887

0.70

1936

34,516,246

0.67

1937

37,004,749

0.63

1938

34,874,575

0.62

1939

32,462,163

0.60

1940

31,926,866

0.58

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You can see that there was a steady fall in the hopping rate. Compare that with the UK:

Hop usage in the UK 1914 - 1920

year

bulk barrels

hops( lbs)

hops lbs/Imperial barrel

hops lbs/US barrel

1934

20,378,879

26,142,928

1.28

0.92

1935

21,598,179

27,859,328

1.29

0.92

1936

22,207,859

28,929,600

1.30

0.93

1937

23,608,658

30,306,304

1.28

0.92

1938

24,339,360

31,118,752

1.28

0.92

1939

25,691,217

32,000,080

1.25

0.89

1940

24,925,704

29,737,344

1.19

0.86

Source:

1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

The UK hopping rate was very steady until the onset of WW II. Note how in some years – 1934 and 1939 – UK and US hop usage was almost exactly the same in terms of pounds. But US gravities were higher. A fairer comparison is based on standard barrels, 36 imperial gallons with an OG of 1055. As that’s based on a more similar gravity to US beers.

Hop usage in the UK 1914 - 1920

year

standard barrels

hops( lbs)

hops lbs/Imperial barrel

hops lbs/US barrel

1934

15,043,120

26,142,928

1.74

1.25

1935

15,577,836

27,859,328

1.79

1.28

1936

16,386,985

28,929,600

1.77

1.27

1937

16,985,231

30,306,304

1.78

1.28

1938

18,055,539

31,118,752

1.72

1.24

1939

18,364,156

32,000,080

1.74

1.25

1940

18,738,619

29,737,344

1.59

1.14

Source:

1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

On this basis, UK beers had about double the quantity of hops as American beers.

I’ve got several more decades of these numbers. It’s going to take a while.

I also always thought the so-called (esp. by his political opponents) "Roosevelt Recession" of '37 and the accompanying rise in unemployment was a cause of the dip in beer production starting in 1938 but Shih & Shih in American Brewing Industry and the Beer Market (1958) had a different explanation:

"The trend of beer consumption has been influenced greatly by government control. Restrictions of the World War II period made the actual consumption far below the trend line for six years (1938-1943) in a row. In the year 1940 it was 13 million barrels or 20% below the trend, the lowest deviation point."

Note that they are specifically discussing the USBF stats for "Consumption" which (for various reasons) are different quantities - often by several million barrels - than those of "Production" and "(Taxpaid) Withdrawals".